The Pumkin Apprentice
by megafan505
Summary: A mortal boy falls into Halloween Town and is changed into a phantom by the powers of Halloween. Jack wants him to be his new apprentice but will it work out?
1. My Story

megafan505: Hello everybody out there! I am starting to redo all of my fanfics. This is the first one that I'm working on. The name I had for my character before just didn't really appeal to me so I decided to change it. Well, here's the disclaimer!

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Disclaimer: Today I'll be doing the disclaimer by myself. I couldn't get anyone famous to do it on such short notice… too bad. Oh well! I, megafan505, do not own anything in this chapter, with the exception of Allen and the storyline. Everything else either belongs to Tim Burton or Disney. So without further ado, I present chapter one of the redone version of "The Pumpkin Apprentice."

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For all my life I needed longed for something new, something different. Now I finally have this thing that I had been longing for, but can this really what I wanted? My name is Allen Hershel, and the answer is yes. This is my story. I am just a mortal, or I was, living a normal boring life, my parents were never home and my little sister was always at some daycare center. Sometimes I would run off and they would never notice me at all being gone. I liked it that way. Although I never did anything bad, I would never get in trouble for leaving at all.

One morning in October, when my school was on fall break, I went off into the forest by myself. There had been some rumors about that forest, like if you went in you would never come back. Perhaps I should have listened to these rumors, is it too late to turn back? I walked nearly all day, and by sunset I reached a place with trees with doors on them. They were shaped like symbols from holidays. They all had their own unique charms, but none of them really appealed to me. I looked around until finally, one caught my eye. A Jack-O-Lantern shaped door. Halloween had always been my favorite holiday, even though the government didn't consider it a real holiday, so naturally I sort of gravitated towards it.

I walked up to it and tuned the knob. At first I saw nothing but darkness. I turned away and began to walk off when suddenly a cool breeze blew through and orange, red, and yellow leaves swirled around me. The wind grew stronger and I fell backwards, into the dark abyss of the tree. As I fell, I could hear faint music and the only thing I could see was the door closing. I landed with a thud in the middle of a graveyard. It was a little creepy, but I didn't mind. This type of thing was just my style. I felt in a bit of Halloween spirit so I opened my backpack and took out my costume I had worn last year which still fit me fine. I had it with me because I had planned to try it on in the middle of the woods. There wouldn't be anyone there so no one could make fun of me if I looked stupid in it. Not that I really would care what they thought, I was happy doing what I wanted. It was a phantom. I had a top hat, white gloves, and a tuxedo all with the mask. I left my backpack there with my normal clothes and anything that would attach me to my real life. I looked straight ahead and walked through a crooked, steel gate.

As I passed through I heard music starting up again. I couldn't believe what I saw. There were people, no, monsters and creatures all around, preparing for what looked like a Halloween festival. I walked by and saw a large man with an axe in his head carrying a wheel barrel full of Jack-O-Lanterns. I also saw three children dressed up in costumes and many other creatures doing decorations. On a stage I saw a man, triangular he was with an extremely tall hat and a megaphone. On his suit there was a ribbon that read "Mayor". "Splendid work everyone!" he said, "Jack will be most pleased". What I saw next was odd, his head spun around. Before he had a happy expression on, now he had a pale face that was frowning, "Don't forget about the town meeting tonight!" he said.

"Could this be what I think this is?" I asked myself, looking around puzzled. "This seems like a town of Halloween". A tall, slender shadow crept over me.

"That's right!" a deep chilling voice said, "This is Halloween Town!" I turned around to see the figure, which appeared to be a skeleton. There was fear in my eyes, although none could see it behind my mask.

"You're a skeleton!" I said aloud. It had been the first thing I had said to anyone since I arrived in this place.

"A skeleton?!" he asked harshly, "I'm no ordinary skeleton! I'll have you know that I am Jack Skellington! The Pumpkin King!"

I looked at him with a confused look, "I'm sorry but what are you talking about?" I asked him. None of this made any sense to me.

"You're new around here aren't you?" said Jack leaning over to my level, which was not that far bellow him. I nodded and rubbed the back of my head.

"I should be going now", I said as I tried to head off for the Graveyard, even though I had no idea how to get back.

"No, please, stay!" he said putting his bony hand on my shoulder, "You could help us with this year's Halloween!" He turned me around and we headed for a tall house, almost mansion size that was on the edge of a cliff.

"YOUR HOUSE IS ON A CLIFF!" I shouted.

"So?" Jack asked with a puzzled look on his face, "It wouldn't matter if it fell after all we are already dead". We walked up to the door and went in. I hadn't realized what he had said until we went inside.

"Wait, what do you mean we're already dead?" I asked pulling of my mask.

Jack gasped, "A human!" he shouted looking straight at me, "How could you have gotten here? Oh no, not the Holiday Forest again!"

I slowly turned around, facing my back to the thin figure. "Well, now that you see I'm not dead I guess there's nothing I can do," I said as I made my way toward the door, "Like I said before I'll be going"

"No, wait!" he said, "I must admit you even had me tricked, and I'm the Pumpkin King. In fact, when I saw you I thought, this guy could strike fear into the hearts of even adult mortals. How would you like to become a resident of Halloween Town?" I looked at him with an odd look.

"Look Jack", I said part of me wanting to say yes, "I would love to and all but like you said, I'm mortal"

"I can fix that", he said. Music began to play and Jack began to sing:

_I call upon the powers of Halloween,_

_Of the holiday worlds which have been unseen,_

_To change this human, mortal child,_

_Into a ghoul, untame and wild_

_I order this by Halloween,_

_For I am Jack the Pumpkin King!_

When he finished singing the room went dark and I saw a small orange light. I had to squint just to see it. I couldn't see Jack anymore. The light grew bigger and bigger until it took up most of the room. I ran up to where the door was to try and escape but it wouldn't open, "Jack!" I shouted, "You can stop now!" I closed my eyes as the light consumed me. A few moments later I opened my eyes and everything was back the way it was before. "Very funny Jack", I said putting my hand to my face, "Now if you'll excuse me". I felt my face and noticed my mask was back on, "That's odd", I said as I tried to pull it off. But no matter how hard I tugged on it, it wouldn't come off, "No way", I whispered to myself.

"Welcome to Halloween Town", said Jack, "Our newest citizen!"

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mega: Well, that's it for now. I hope you all enjoyed the revisions! Don't worry about the shortness. I got a little bit more literate since I wrote this fic so any new chapters are most likely going to be longer. See you then! 


	2. The Training Begins

mega: Hello everyone! Welcome to the revised second chapter. I hope you enjoy it. I know I just posted the first one a little while before this, but still... Oh well! The newest chapter will be up soon, and I promise it will be worth the wait. Sorry for those of you who liked the name Yoma better than Allen, but it just didn't appeal to me. Allen seemed like a more fitting name. Well, I hope you like this chapter!

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mega: Hey guys! For those of you who read my old fics, guess what? My Yami is back!

Yamimega: You know, I was having a nice vacation.

mega: Yeah, well almost a year is long enough for a vacation.

Yamimega: I'm several thousand years old. I deserve a big break.

mega: And you got one. So anyway, he's going to do the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: megafan505 does not own The Nightmare Before Christmas or anything in this fic other than the concept of the character Allen. Everything else is property of Tim Burton or Disney... Can I go back to my vacation now?

mega: I'm gonna bring you back eventually.

Yamimega: Whatever.

mega: Oh fine then... On with the fic!

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"Very funny Jack", I said to the skeleton man standing in front of me, "Now do that magic spell again and get my mask off of me" 

Jack merely grinned and said, "Well there's a problem" with a bit of a chortle, "I can't. By the way, what did you say your name was again?" I couldn't believe this!

"I didn't say it, but it's Allen, Allen Hershel. And what do you mean you can't?" I asked, "You put it on me!"

Jack put his bony hand on the back of his head, "Well, I can only use big magic like that once a year", he said a bit slyly, "And I didn't just stick the mask on your face, you are now a phantom."

"What do you mean I'm a phantom!? So what now I'm gonna have some supernatural powers?!" After I said these words something felt a bit odd.

"Um, Allen", Jack said pointing down at the ground. I looked down and saw that I was floating in mid-air!

"I'm floating!" I shouted. "Actually you are hovering, floating would be higher. You're just a little off the ground. There's a difference between the two"

"I don't care about the difference between floating and hovering!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I stuck my hands out right in front of me and extended my arms. A short plume of fire flew from my palms. I stood there with my jaw wide open. "No way..." I said to myself.

"Well your powers are coming along nicely", Jack said cleaning up the small char mark which my flame left behind.

"What ever, I'm going home", I said hovering over to the door, even though I still had no clue how to get back.

"Oh you can't go back to the mortal world now", Jack said as he stood up from cleaning the mark.

"What do you mean I can't get back?" I asked still facing the door.

"Well, a little while ago a big holiday mess happened. You could say it was like Halloween colliding with Christmas. It was kind of my fault". As he said this I thought back a couple of years, the year when Halloween had a little less scare in it and Christmas almost made up for it, "Ever since that has happened, the members of the Holiday Towns have only been able to enter the mortal world on the days of their holidays."

I turned around and slowly landed back on the ground. "So you mean I'm stuck here until Halloween with these new powers and everything?" I asked. Actually I felt that was a bit of a good thing really.

"That's right", Jack said moving over to an armchair, "Would you like to sit down?" I sat on a couch across the room from his chair.

"But where will I stay?" I asked. Jack put one of his hands to his chin.

"Hmm... that is a bit of a problem. Wait! I know! You can live with me and be my apprentice!" I looked at him with a strange look on my face.

"Are you joking?" I asked him thinking that this was a great offer, "I could really live here with you and become an apprentice of the Pumpkin King?" I listened to myself. Did that sound odd or what? A few moments ago I didn't even know who the Pumpkin King was.

"Sure, I don't see why not" Jack said standing up, "Plus we've been in need of some help this Halloween. We have been doing well and all but not good enough. It just needs to be a little bit scarier. That's where you can help!" He walked over to a table which had one leg that was shorter than the others and got a book off of it. "Now then, let's get started", he said setting the book down and sitting back in his armchair. He picked up the book and flipped through it quickly, "All right! Show me the scariest face that you have"

"Um Jack", I said pointing to my mask, "Even if I had an extremely scary face, no one could see it. I have a mask on remember?"

"Oh that's right", he said bluntly, "All right, let's work on your powers. Focus on something that you think would make people scared." I stretched out my arms as far as I could and tried to focus on something but it wouldn't work, "I can't do it Jack."

"Sure you can. Here, imagine acid and slimy toxins", he said trying to encourage me.

"All right", I stretched out my arms again. If anyone could see behind my mask they would see my eyes glowing green. Acid poured out of my glove covered hands and melted the table in front of me. "Well, how's that", I asked sheepishly.

"Um, I think we're done for today", Jack said lifting up the table and throwing it out a window which led over the cliff. I could see Jack kept looking out the window even after we both heard it land at the bottom. He finally brought his head back in, "Well we better get ready for the town meeting tonight. I can introduce you to everyone there" Jack ran up a spiral flight of stairs and then came back down in about five minutes. "I changed", he said although it looked like he was still wearing the exact same outfit.

I went to the door and opened it, "After you sir", I said bowing just as if I were his butler. This whole apprentice thing was starting to get to me. Jack walked out the door and I followed after him. We went down to a big place with a clock on it but instead of time, the clock told the date. Instead of numbers it had the months on it and there was only one hand. A sign beneath the clock read, "5 Days until Halloween." We walked into the building which I assumed was Town Hall. All the creatures I had seen earlier were there. On top of the stage was the man that had the two faces. He was wearing his sad, nervous face.

"Please everyone settle down!" he shouted, "As soon as Jack gets here we can get started, ah there he is". Jack grinned and I followed him onto the stage.

"Everyone settle down please". In an instant they all were silent and the man, who I guessed was the mayor, changed to his happy grinning face. "This is Allen Hershel", Jack said, "He's new in town and I think he can help us with this year's Halloween! I looked out among the crowd and saw tons of different spooky faces. There was a tree with a face that had skeletons hung from its branches, a girl that looked as though she had been sown together, a creature that had no jaw and the top of his head was connected to the bottom of it only by a long red cord, and many other odd creatures.

"What does he do?" a werewolf in the crowd asked.

"Yeah he doesn't seem scary at all!" a witch shouted.

"Show them your stuff Allen", said Jack. I nodded and began to hover, then I began to go higher and I flew over all of their heads. Then I released fire from my hands which lit four torches strapped to the wall. Finally, I flew back onto the stage with my cape flowing and set toxin all over the chandelier above all of their heads and bowed. They all began to express their amazement with applause and shouts of excitement. Then I really knew I had found a place I could really call my home for once.

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mega: Well that's it for the redone chapters! The next chapter is under way, and it is my main priority. It's going to take place on Halloween night so sorry for those of you who wanted to see Jack and Allen training. But I have a lot planned for Allen in the future. Just stay tuned!


	3. One Crazy Night

mega: I'm going to make this author's note quick and put the disclaimer in it. It's finally here, the newest chapter. For those of you who were old patrons of this fic, I must inform you that I have redone it and the main character's name has been changed from Yoma Arikano to Allen Hershel. For the disclaimer, I don't own anything in here except Allen, his family, and the storyline. Everything else belongs to Time Burton, Disney, and Bryan Fuller. Enjoy!

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"So this is what it's like," I said folding my arms, "This is how a holiday is run." I looked around me. Everywhere there were pumpkins and dim spooky lights. The moon was full and had such and eerie glow that it could only mean one thing. "So this is the real story behind Halloween," I said with a grin so big I wondered if it could be seen behind my mask. I walked down the stairs which were connected to the platform I had been standing on. In my hand I had a rolled up scroll. This was The List. Every single scream, trick, and treat was listed on here and I had been trusted with it. In fact I had helped come up with quite a few of the things on here.

"Isn't this wonderful Allen?" I heard the voice of my teacher coming from behind me, "The festivities are just about to begin! I haven't been this excited since we handled Christmas! You did a fine job with helping."

"Thanks Jack," I said turning towards the lean skeleton, "It's probably because of my teaching." I really meant that too. I had helped come up with a bunch of ideas, but they were all inspired by Jack's lessons.

"Alright everyone!" the Mayor said through his megaphone, "This is going to be our biggest Halloween yet!" His head flipped around to and revealed his more pessimistic side, "So we can't mess this up in any way!"

"I've heard of two faced politicians before but this is ridiculous," I said to myself.

"Oh Jack, this is so wonderful," a gentle voice said, "You did such a good job on this." I looked toward where the voice had come from and I saw the voice had come from the woman that looked like a rag doll.

"Sally!" Jack said as he walked over to her and put his arms on her shoulders, "You really think so? I'm so glad you like it." I began to get a little confused at this scene. I began to say something but Jack got to it before I did. "Oh, Sally, you remember Allen, don't you?" Jack asked as he led her over to me.

"Oh yes, you're Jack's apprentice, right?" she said moving towards me and held her hands together, "Jack has told me so much about you. You did a wonderful job helping him."

"Oh, thank you," I said with a smile that was hidden between my mask. He may have told her about me but I hadn't heard anything about her. Of course, Jack and I didn't have much time to talk in between lessons and by the time they were done I was so tired I went straight to sleep.

"Sally," yelled a one of the witches standing over by a cauldron, "Dear, would you come and help us please?"

"Coming," she shouted in response, "It was so nice to really meet you Allen. Good luck tonight you two." She walked off towards the witches, though she looked a bit unstable as she made her way there.

"Um, Jack," I began but was quickly cut off.

"Oh yes, you mean Sally?" he asked turning back towards me, "She helped me a lot during the whole Christmas mishap. She really was the one who fixed it all. Well, her and Sandy Claws."

"Sandy Claws?" I asked, thinking he must have meant Santa Claus. I let it drop though because I had a more important question. "Well yeah, but I mean," I began with a wicked grin, "Is she someone special to you?"

Jack looked a little embarrassed at this question. If he had blood in him I think he would have been blushing. "Well, actually," he said putting his hand up to his mouth, "She's my fiancé. We're going to get married in exactly three hundred and sixty-four days."

"So the king of Halloween got caught by cupid, huh?" I asked crossing my arms again. I found it kind of cute how he knew the exact amount of time until then. "You're even counting down the days." I could tell Jack was feeling really awkward because he did his best to change the subject.

"Oh, look at the time," he said, "We must get going! Do you have all of your things?" I knew what he was talking about. He meant my scare pack which I had hidden under my hat. In it, I had some of the new things that Jack and I had made. I nodded, pulled it out, and dug into it for one of my favorite things, the screamers. I threw one at the ground and it exploded with a shriek. "Save some of those for later," Jack said, "Tonight we go all out on these things." The scare pack was like a bottomless sack, it could hold anything but it didn't have that much. A bunch of screamers, some jack o' lantern bombs, and a couple of wind-up skulls. "All right everybody," Jack shouted as he walked up to a black carriage drawn by skeleton horses, "Let's get moving! This is going to be our most horrifying Halloween yet!" Both of us stepped into it and we took off through the forest.

Before I knew it we were speeding through the streets of the mortal world. All around us there were children in costumes and marvelous decorations. We began to slow down, still going at a steady pace, when I realized that no one seemed to notice us. "Jack, how come they can't see us?" I asked him getting my scare pack ready, "Shouldn't they be screaming at our very sight?"

Jack simply answered me with a question of his own. "Do children see the Easter Bunny leaving eggs on their lawn?" he asked, "Or do people in love see Cupid shooting them with his arrows? Our main job as holidays is to bring the spirit to them. Of course, when we want it to we can make them see us. Then we can put our own personal touches on things."

I was really starting to get the whole concept of it now. So I didn't see any harm in getting to work right away. As we passed through some of the neighborhoods I began pulling things out of my scare pack and starting throwing them out of the window. The sound of screams began to fill the air as my work practically took care of itself. "This is what it's like to be in charge of Halloween," I said as the carriage came to a stop. I still had quite a few of my tricks in my scare pack. I looked out the window and the area around us seemed familiar to me. "Wait a second, I know this place," I said staring outside, "This is my old neighborhood. That's my old house!"

"You miss them don't you?" Jack asked as I turned towards him, "Your family I mean."

"Well, I guess so," I said back to him as I began to think about them, "It's mostly my little sister, Eve. I love living in Halloween Town, but I never got a chance to say goodbye to them."

"You can do that now," he said as the doors on both sides of the carriage flung open, "Though you might want to take off your mask first." He got up from his seat and began to walk out. "You can go right this instant actually," he continued, "I've got a little bit of personal scare to take care of. You have The List right?"

I reached into my scare pack and pulled it out. "Wait a second Jack, what do you mean take off my mask?" I asked as I handed The List to him, "Don't you remember, it's stuck on me because you turned me into a phantom."

"Oh really?" he asked as he slipped it up his sleeve, "Why don't you try taking it off right now?"

I put my hands to my mask and slowly pulled it away from my face. "What the…" I said in shock, "But I thought that."

"When we are in the mortal world, we can change ourselves into mortals as long as we never actually died before. You can do this and so can any other creature that never had a moment of their own death," Jack said petting the skeleton horses, who soon took off, "It helps us to blend in for the really big surprises. You can go spend some time with your family now. You just need make sure to get back to Halloween Town by midnight, so you might want this." He tossed me a small wrist watch with bones as the hands. I strapped on the watch and was about to ask him why I had to be back by then but he sped off before I got the chance.

"Happy Halloween Jack," I muttered under my breath. He must have been so excited to get out like this. After all, he only got that chance once a year now. The other three hundred and sixty-four days he spent in Halloween Town. I stuck my mask in my scare pack, made my way up to the door, and took a deep breath. How would I explain this to them? What would I say? I finally got the courage, after what seemed like forever, to ring the doorbell.

"Alright, let's see your amazing costumes," the voice of my mother came from inside. She sounded enthusiastic, but I could hear just a slight bit of sadness hidden under it. "Happy…" she began as she opened the door then she just stood there in shock, "Allen?"

"Trick or Treat," I said with a melancholy look on my face. She immediately dropped the candy and embraced me in her arms.

"Oh Allen where have you been?" she asked as she began sobbing, "Why didn't you come home? We thought you were dead!" I almost wanted to laugh at how true that was, but this wasn't the time for that. As I looked past her I could see my father and Eve sitting in the living room staring right back at me.

"I'll tell you all about it," I said and we headed inside. And so I told them about it. I didn't leave out a single detail. Through most of it they looked at me as though I were crazy. But I could tell that at some points they believed me. They were always the type of family who would believe what I said. I didn't take advantage of it very much, but this looked like a perfect chance to see if they really would believe me.

"Big brother, you're going to stay home now right?" Eve asked me, looking up with her big hazel eyes, "We miss you." I looked away from her and looked at my parents. They had a slight look of disappointment on their faces, but their look was mostly relief.

"I wish I could, but I'm going to have to leave soon," I looked at the watch which told me I had fifteen minutes to get back to Halloween Town, "Very soon actually. I just came to say goodbye." My father stood up and loomed over me.

"You, young man, are not going anywhere," he said, "You had us all scared to death. You'll be lucky if we even let you go back to school when it starts." I was afraid that he would say something like that. I had to get away soon, or who knew what would happen. Jack told me to get back by midnight for a reason. I didn't know what it was, but it had to be important. I reached into my scare pack and pulled a screamer from it. I tossed it to the other end of the room where it exploded and let out a yelp. My family all looked over towards it and I quickly sped to the window.

"I'm sorry," I said as I climbed out, "But I really have to go now. I promise I'll come back some day."

"Big brother! Wait!" my sister shouted as I ran off towards the woods. I could hear my parents yelling for me as well but I did my best to ignore all of them. I ran into the forest, sobbing as I realized that I may never come back. There was no guarantee that I would see any of them again.

I was almost at the clearing when I bumped into something about the same height as me and fell over. Actually, it was someone, not something. "Hey watch where you're going kid," a female voice said to me.

"My name isn't kid," I said wiping the tears from my face and picking up my scare pack, "It's Allen." I looked up to see a blonde girl who looked about twenty with a curious look on her face.

"Allen?" she asked as she pulled out a something yellow from her pocket, "Is your last name Hershel by any chance?"

I got to my feet and looked at her strangely. "How do you know my last name?" I asked her, "Never mind. Just leave me alone." I didn't have time for this. I had to get back to Halloween Town soon. I walked past her and she reached towards me.

"Lighten up," she said as she brushed her hand down my back, "It's Halloween." As she did this I felt a strange chill. I ignored her and picked up my pace. My watch told me I had only two minutes left. I could probably make it if I hurried! I began to run when my leg got caught on something and I tripped. My scare pack went flying and landed out of my reach. As I started getting up I heard a strange cracking sound. I turned my head to the side and I saw a huge shadow falling towards me. I closed my eyes and braced for whatever it was.

When I didn't feel anything after a while I opened my eyes. What I saw struck terror in my heart. It wasn't the good fear of Halloween that Jack and I loved. This was true horror. I was standing up now, but lying in front of me was a huge oak tree with a body crushed under it. I moved closer to see the body and I realized that it was me.

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mega: Whoa! Cliffhanger huh? For those of you who watch Dead Like Me, you know what just happened and probably figured it out toward the end. For the rest of you, it will all be explained in the next chapter. Don't worry, it won't take me forever to get it up. In fact, I may have it up by the end of this week. Also, sorry to all of you who got those alert e-mails a ton of times. I had to keep editing to keep editing the chapters because everytime I read them I found something wrong. I fixed them now though. Well I'll see you later!


	4. Dead End

mega: Hello everybody! Sorry it took me so long to update but wasn't really working for me. I'm not quite sure why... Though everything seems better now. I'm not really in the mood to make up something funny for the author's note so here's the disclaimer.

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Disclaimer: I, megafan505, do not own anything mentioned in this fic with the exception of the storyline and several characters. Everything else in here belongs to either Tim Burton of Bryan Fuller. Enjoy!

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There I stood, in the middle of the forest, staring at what seemed to be my own body. For a moment I had been filled with pure terror. So many thoughts rushed through my head. But that didn't last long. I reasoned with myself about it. I mean I've been dead before this happened. Sure I didn't have a specific time when I died before, but still, how different can death be the second time around? But still, this just seemed kind of strange. I stood there for what seemed like forever, when actually it wasn't even a whole minute. Then behind me I heard someone walking toward me. I turned to find that it was that strange girl that I bumped into. "So what are you?" I asked her, "The Grim Reaper or something."

"You got the basic idea of this," she said as she walked up next to me, "Except I'm _a_ reaper, not _the_ reaper."

"_A_?" I asked her strangely, "So there's more than one. Well, I guess I have you to blame for being dead."

"Nope, not my job," she said crossing her arms and looking down at the ground, "The Gravelings take care of that. Think of them as the things that go bump in the night, just with a sick sense of humor. In fact there should be one or two still around here somewhere." As I tried looking around for it, she stared at my body. "Crushed by a tree," she continued, "What a way to go kid."

"I told you, my name isn't kid," I said crossing my arms and facing her, "It's Allen. Besides, I'm sure you've seen something worse than this, haven't you?"

"Try being crushed by a toilet that falls from a Soviet space station," she said looking back at me and then back to my body, "That's how I went. I'm George by the way."

"George?" I asked, "As in the curious little monkey?"

"It's short for Georgia," she said with a slight scowl on her face.

"So it's like the state then," I continued. I kneeled down to try to pick up my scare pack but for some reason my hand just went through it. "Hey George, can you help me over here," I called over to her, "I have to get somewhere by midnight."

"Well the only place you're going is to the afterlife. Of course I'm not really sure how that works yet," she said walking over to me, "And if you wanted to get there by midnight, I've got some bad news for you." She held out the yellow thing she had looked at earlier, which turned out to be a Post-It Note. On it, it read:

_A. Hershel_

_Dalefield Forest_

_E.T.D. 12:00 Midnight_

I would have held it myself but I had a feeling my hand would go right through that too. "E.T.D." I said looking at the Post-It for a moment, "What does that stand for?"

"That would be Estimated Time of Death," George said as she crumpled it up, "So if you had some place to go at midnight, you missed it. But don't worry about that, your schedule is pretty free from now until about forever."

"It doesn't really matter if I'm dead or not," I said trying to grab my scare pack again, "Where I'm headed pretty much everyone is already dead. All I need is for you to get that mask out of my bag for me. Then I can get going."

"You're not going anywhere except with me. If I let you go, my boss is gonna be real pissed," she said grabbing my hand, "Now come on. I'm going to go show you some pretty lights."

"Fine then, I'll go with you," I said to her, "Just get that mask for me first." I was already planning in my mind that I'd run off as soon as she let go of me, but at that moment I needed to get that mask.

"Look, I'm not supposed to interfere with this kind of stuff," she said groaning, "But if it will make you get moving, I guess I can do it." She went up to my scare pack and starting looking through it. She muttered something under her breath but I could only hear something about stubborn spirits. "There's no mask in here," she said turning back to me, "You couldn't do anything with it anyway. You can't touch anything in this world anymore."

"What?" I shouted walking over to her, "It has to be in there. I just put it in there before you got me." She held it open to reveal that she was telling the truth. Most of the stuff was still in there, but my mask wasn't. "I don't understand it," I began but was cut off.

"Hey! Get back here you damn Graveling!" George shouted throwing a stick at a tree nearby us, "Put that back!" She stood up and threw a rock in that direction as well. "Damn it!" she shouted, "Those things really piss me off!" She turned back to me and sighed. "Well I know what happened to your mask now," she said, "That Graveling took it."

"He took it?" I asked standing up in front of her, "And he took it because…" At this moment in time these Gravelings were starting to piss me off too.

"Who knows," she said turning back in the direction the Graveling ran off in, "They don't usually do this. Most of the time they just kill someone and run away. Although they do steal candy from any trick-or-treaters they knock off." She grabbed my arm again and started dragging me off. "You couldn't do anything with that mask anyway," she continued, "I told you before, you have no body. In fact, no one but me and other reapers can see you right now."

"Well I guess it could be worse," I replied, "So I guess you're going to take me to Halloween Town now." I figured that since I was dead now I would just end up there. After all Jack was dead and he lived there.

"Halloween Town?" she asked turning her head toward me, "Been watching a little too many cartoons lately kid?"

"Why do you find something like that so hard to believe when you're pretty supernatural yourself," I asked her, "I mean, there aren't that many people who would expect that grim reapers live among us. So why couldn't there be a place like Halloween Town."

"Well, whether or not it exists, I don't really know where you're headed. I just see to it that souls get to their final destination, I can't come with you," She explained, "I'm stuck here until my quota is done. I should probably start thanking my reaps now. You guys help me get one step closer moving on."

"You're welcome, I guess," I said to her. She didn't really say much after that so I had a little time to think about things. I had lived a nice life, I had a good family. I experienced a lot more than most people did, seeing Halloween Town and all. I thought I would end up in Halloween Town anyways. I realized that even if I was still alive I couldn't really go back to my real family. If I did go back my parents would have probably never let me leave the house again. They probably thought I was insane chasing after a place called Halloween Town. I finally figured it all out after what seemed like hours. My life was really over, and that was okay.

"Hey kid, look," George said to me as she finally stopped walking, "Your ride is here." We stood in front of a huge clearing. It wouldn't have been very special if it hadn't been for the thing that was in the clearing. What I saw was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. It looked almost like Halloween Town, but somehow different. There were ghosts and monsters all over the place. There were rivers of candy flowing through it. In the center of it all there was a huge Jack-O-Lantern. Everything in there just seemed to beckon me towards it. So I started to walk towards it.

"And George," I said looking back at her for a moment, "I told you before. My name's not kid, It's Allen!" I waved at her and she waved back. Then I ran into the midst of the image and everything seemed to be made of some kind of wonderful light. George and the woods blurred out of sight. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

When I opened my eyes again the images were gone. I wasn't in the woods either. At first I didn't really know where I was. It didn't look like Halloween Town, but it did have a sort of dead feel to it. It looked like some kind of pub, but all around me there were people who looked dead. I sighed for a moment and turned around on the barstool I was sitting on. "Strange," I said under my breath, "I pictured the afterlife differently."

"So what'll you have?" the bartender asked behind the counter asked me. I looked up at him for a moment then looked back down. So much for my idea of ended up in Halloween Town again. "You're new around here, aren't you," he asked me, "My name's Ray. I get off in a few if you need someone to help you get around."

"No thanks Ray," I said getting up and sighing, "I think I'll see myself around. I'm Allen by the way." I stuck my hands in my pockets and began to walk off. There had to be some kind of mistake. I had just walked into a grand image of something that was my ideal afterlife. How could I have ended up in a place like this? It looked pretty nice and all but it wouldn't have been my choice of where to spend the rest of eternity. I walked out the door and looked around me. It seemed to be some kind of huge town of dead people. "Well, it could be worse," I said to myself. I began to walk down one of the streets when I heard something.

"Excuse me!" I heard a female voice calling from behind me, "Hold on a moment please." I turned around to see a woman coming towards me. For a moment she looked like Sally but as she got closer I noticed she was in a wedding gown. She also looked kind of different. She didn't have stitches running through her and he face seemed slightly more slender. "I'm terribly sorry I'm late," she said coming up to me, "My name is Emily and I'll be your guide around the Land of the Dead."

"Um, thanks, I guess," I said to her. I realized that if I was going to be stuck here it wouldn't be a bad idea to get someone to help me out. "So Emily," I said, "Are you like an angel or something?"

"An angel? Oh no," she said laughing slightly, "I'm dead, just like you are. Come right this way please. I'll show you to your new house first." I began to follow after her.

"So is this where I'm going to spend the rest of eternity?" I asked her while looking at the scenery of dead people all around me, "I mean I like it but it's not really my style."

"No dear, this isn't the end," she said looking at the addresses on the houses near us, "Think about this as a place of waiting. It's kind of like limbo."

"So George didn't know I was going to end up here?" I continued following her up a flight of stairs.

"George?" she asked, "Oh you must mean your reaper. No, they don't really know anything about this place. They don't really get much insight on the afterlife except for the things they know from their job." She turned to a door on the wall and checked the address for a moment. "You see, some rides lead directly to a person's final destination," she said as she continued up the stairs, "Other souls, like you and me, still have some things that need to be worked out before they can get to the ending point."

"So will I end up in Halloween Town?" I asked her as we reached the top of the stairs. I really hoped that would be where I would spend the rest of forever.

"I'm not quite sure dear," she continued as she walked up to a few other doors, "You see, there are many different final destinations, and we won't really know where you're headed until all of the paperwork is finished. You will end up in the place that you are most suited for. Ah, here we are. 1313 Deadend Drive." She opened up the door that revealed a huge home complete with furniture and everything. "Now, if you need anything at all, just ring this bell," she said handing me a tiny little bell that made a sound as if it belonged in a wedding chapel. "Please, make yourself comfortable and enjoy your stay here."

"Wait a second," I said stopping her from walking out the door, "Why can't I just head back to Halloween Town now?"

"Oh, you mean you didn't know?" she asked turning back toward me, "You see dear, when the big mishap with the holidays happened they laid down some rules. You see it is impossible for someone to enter one of the holiday towns unless it is in the same month as the holiday. When it hit midnight, October ended. It's the first of November dear. I'm sorry dear."

"You mean," I stood there in shock for a moment, "I'll have to wait a whole year before I can go back to Halloween Town? I can't see Jack or any of them for a year?"

"Actually, I hate to say it," Emily continued, "But you may not be able to go there ever again. The elders have already started decided your final destination. The only way you can make sure you will end up there is by finding your own way there."

"This isn't fair," I said sitting down on a couch that was in my new living room, "First I lost my old life and now I lost my new one."

"I'm sorry but I can't do anything about this," Emily said sitting next to me, "I just take care of some of the souls. I can't decide anything."

"It's not your fault Emily," I said turning towards her, "Could you just leave me alone please?" I thought I sounded kind of rude but I didn't do anything about it. She had been very kind to me but I just needed to think things over with myself. She said something to me as she left but I didn't pay any attention to it. I couldn't believe that my life with the people I cared for was over. Then it hit me, I would probably never see my real family ever again. Crying wasn't something that I normally do, but that night I cried just like I had when I ran away from my family. I cried so hard that I was sure that my neighbors could have heard me, but at the time I didn't care. I just kept crying and before I knew it I was asleep.


End file.
